ISTRIA, formerly a margravate and crownland of Austria, now the Italian province of Pola, in the region of Venezia Giulia; area 1,908 sq.m. It comprises the peninsula of the same name (area sq.m.), which stretches into the Adriatic Sea between the Gulf of Trieste and the Gulf of Quarnero, and the islands of Cherso, Lussino and others. The coast line extends for 267 m., and is indented on the west by the bays of Muggia, Capodistria, Pirano, Porto Quieto and Pola, and on the east by those of Medo lino, Arsa, Fianona and Volosca. A great portion belongs to the Carsic region, and is occupied by the so-called Istrian plateau, flanked north and east by mountains (Monte Maggiore 4,573 ft.). It slopes down south and west in undulating terraces towards the Adriatic. The Quieto in the west and the Arsa in the east, neither navigable, are the principal streams. The climate is on the whole warm and dry. The coasts are exposed to the Sirocco from the south-south-east, and the Bora from the north-east. Wheat, maize, rye, oats, olives, figs and melons are grown. Viticulture is well developed, and the best sorts of wine are produced near Capo distria, Muggia, Isola, Parenzo and Dignano, while well-known red wines are made near Refosco and Terrano. The oil of Istria was already famous in Roman times. Cattle are bred and lumbering gives beech and oak timber (good for shipbuilding), gall-nuts, oak-bark and cork. The bauxite mines produced 195,000 tons in 1925, and further mining has been prohibited for fear of exhaust ing the supply. Fishing, recovery of salt from the sea-water, and
shipbuilding are other occupations. Istria had in 1921 a popula tion of 299,295; in 1931 it had 297,526.
Istria was the ancient Istria or Histria, known to Rome as the abode of fierce Illyrian pirates. It owed its name to an old belief that the Danube (Ister, in Greek) discharged some of its water by an arm entering the Adriatic in that region. The Istrians, protected by the difficult navigation of their rocky coasts, were only subdued by Rome in 177 B.C. after two wars. Under Augus tus the greater part of the peninsula was added to Italy, and the later removal of the capital to Ravenna advantaged Istria. After the fall of the Western empire it was pillaged by Longobardi and Goths; it was annexed to the Frankish kingdom by Pepin in 789; and about the middle of the loth century it fell to the dukes of Carinthia, then successively to the dukes of Meran, the duke of Bavaria and the patriarch of Aquileia, and the republic of Venice. Under this rule it remained until 1797, when Austria added it to the north-eastern part which had fallen to her share so early as 1374. By the peace of Pressburg, Austria was in 18o5 compelled to cede Istria to France, and the department of Istria was formed, but in 1813 Austria again seized it, and retained it until 1918.
See T. G. Jackson, Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria (Oxford, 1887) ; A. A. Bernardy, L'Istria e la Dolmazia (Bergamo, Arti Grafiche u. d.) well illustrated.